FlightGear Newsletter July 2014

5 years of newsletters

The newsletter started in July 2009. (more to write here, just so we don't forget about it)

Would it be an idea to provide some sort of weekly or monthly newsletter? I often find out that there are new things I didn't new about or other users that don't follow all topics won't know if there's an awsome plane released. That's why I think we need a newsletter. Possible things to write about could be: - New planes that are released. - New scenery projects (like a new/redrawed airport, things like the corse scenery etc.). - New FG releases (this is not very often, but it should be in the letter if so). - New forum features/subforums and other news from the forum. - News from the wiki (only detailed and large tutorials, or new portals etc. so not every new article ofcourse) - Events that will be held within a short periode or (links to) screenshots of the latest event(s). - The first 3 or 5 pictures of a screenshot contest. If you got other idea's, post in this topic so we could extend the list. I don't really know what's best way to provide the letter. But we have some options: - a topic that's closed, only open for people that are making the letter (at the moment this sounds best to me). - emails send to all forum-users (I don't really like this myself). - a .pdf file with a link on the main page of http://www.flightgear.org - or even something else I would like to write the letter, but if there are other people to we might split stuff (someone for scenery news, someone else for aircrafts etc.). Please respond and vote in the poll. Tips/ideas are very much appreciated. — Gijs (Mon May 26). Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

The devel-list is great, I'm subscribed to, but not simple to read. It's more like the forum. Usually I don't want to or have time to read through all emails. So I delete most of it without reading anything more than the subject. We don't want to read a lot of topics if we only want to know what function is new and what it does. The the users (so not the developers) want something more ease to read/check. With some screenies of what they will get with a new function etc. So my idea was to make it especially for users. Events aren't listed on the pages you gave nor some other stuff we could place in the newsletter. In the letter all important news to know will be listed together. If we get this of the ground it could be a great way to reach users to (for events etc.). So I think the newsletter still will be a addition to the lists. — Gijs (Mon May 26). Re: Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

At one time a few years ago we attempted to launch a newsletter. We had two volunteers, but we never got even the first issue out. It's a lot of work so we need a pretty dedicated volunteer. I've heard of other folks using scribus, but even open-office writer would probably be just fine. Let's not get too caught up in the details of a print/publishing quality layout if we have to sacrifice time for content and just getting the newsletter out on a regular time frame. There are a bazillion ideas for articles. I could dust off my unpublished "yasim howto" for instance. That ended up being about 10 pages (so not newsletter material really) but I could trim it down to a teaser article and we could post the full version on the wiki or something? But if you are willing to get a newsletter rolling, that would be awsome. — curt (Tue May 27). Re: Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

Gijs is right when it comes to being a Developer or a User of FG is Vastly different. I know when i first started here i had no clue about lots of developmental things, now i talk of writing .xml files, modelling nasal scripting. That is due to people describing things is basic easy to understand" Laymans" terms and not the kind of language that the DEvs use (understandably of course) — MaverickAlex (Thu May 29). Re: Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

Since 16 to 3 voted for Yes I will release the first Newsletter as soon as possible. — Gijs (Thu Aug 21). Re: Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)

Why not simply start a new page on the wiki where anybody can provide contents, so that whenever it's time to send out a newsletter, the draft from the wiki could be taken? That way, it wouldn't be too much work for a single person - more like a "community-driven" newsletter, while this may appear to sort of defeat the purpose, not all newsletter recipients are necessarily also wiki users. — Hooray (Fri Oct 03). Re: Newsletter. (powered by Instant-Cquotes)